Improvement of tensile properties of pure Cu and CuCrZr alloy by cryo-rolling process

The present study investigates the effect of cryo-rolling process, i.e. cold-rolling at liquid-nitrogen temperature followed by heat treatment, on tensile properties of pure copper and precipitation-hardened CuCrZr alloy. The cryo-rolling process resulted in a simultaneous improvement of strength and ductility of pure copper. On the other hand, a cryo-rolled CuCrZr alloy showed higher tensile strength but comparable ductility with a conventional cold-rolled CuCrZr alloy. Microstructural analysis indicates that the drastically-beneficial effect of cryo-rolling on pure copper may be due to its heterogeneous size distribution of grains which consist of cryo-rolled fine grains, residual cryo-rolled grains and recrystallized coarse grains. The modest but certain benefit of cryo-rolling on CuCrZr alloy can be explained by different texture formation compared with conventional cold-rolling. Effect of neutron irradiation on tensile properties of cryo-rolled CuCrZr alloy is also examined.